Usually, the structure of the floor in a large-capacity passenger aircraft is designed such that the frames that constitute the fuselage are horizontally spanned, in a tendon-like manner, by transverse girders onto which the actual floor structure is built. In this arrangement seat rails that extend in longitudinal direction of the fuselage, mostly in pairs, are arranged on the transverse girders, in which seat rails, the seats or seat rows as well as other interior equipment components such as for example galleys, stowage areas, lavatories, personnel work stations, entertainment control centres or class dividers can later be anchored, with the above, within the context of the present invention, being designated by the overall term of interior equipment components. In this arrangement floor panels are fitted strap-like as a floor covering between the individual seat rails, wherein, if required, said floor panels can also be made rigid by way of additional optional transverse girders between the seat rails if relatively heavy interior equipment components such as for example galleys or lavatories are to be placed onto the floor panels.
As an alternative to this, floor panels that are internally reinforced with carrier-like reinforcement elements are also known as a floor covering. However, these floor panels also only extend between two adjacent seat rails by way of which they support the loads to be transferred as single-field supports.
The described known floor structure has been shown to be disadvantageous in particular in the area of interior equipment components, in particular in wet areas as formed by lavatories or galleys, because in those areas the seat rails that extend through the wet area have to be elaborately sealed off from the floor panels bordering the seat rails. Since such sealing has to be carried out already during structural and equipment installation, at this early installation stage the exact positions of such wet areas, for example galleys or lavatories, must already be known, so that subsequent customer requirements or necessary modifications to the position of interior equipment can no longer be catered for. Furthermore, as a result of the required sealing of the known floor structure, a plurality of small parts have to be kept at hand, which can be disadvantageous in particular as far as logistics are concerned.